1 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,280 Friends, our teaching scripture this morning comes from Luke 2 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:22,400 chapter 16, verses 19 to 31. It says there was a rich man who 3 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,720 was dressed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted 4 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:30,680 sumptuously every day, and at his gate lay a poor, poor man 5 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:35,680 named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his 6 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,680 hunger with what fell from the rich man's table. 7 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:42,200 Even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 8 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,360 The poor man died, and was carried away by the angels to be 9 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,400 with Abraham. The rich man also died, and was 10 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,240 buried in Hades, where he was being tormented. 11 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,400 He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by 12 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,280 his side. He called out, Father Abraham, 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,120 have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his 14 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:09,320 finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in 15 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:12,800 these flames. But Abraham said, Child, 16 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,720 remember that during your lifetime you received your good 17 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,800 things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he 18 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,720 is comforted here and you are in agony. 19 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:28,240 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been 20 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:32,400 fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you 21 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,400 cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us. 22 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,920 He said, Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's 23 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,080 house, for I have 5 brothers, that he may warn them, so that 24 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,960 they will not also come into this place of torment. 25 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,480 Abraham replied, They have Moses and the prophets, they should 26 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,760 listen to them, He said. No, father Abraham, but if 27 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:59,960 someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. 28 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:04,360 And he said to him, if they do not listen to Moses and the 29 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:06,680 prophets, neither will they be convinced. 30 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,400 Even if someone rises from the dead, this is the word of the 31 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:15,320 Lord. Good morning. 32 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:18,280 It's good to be with you this morning. 33 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,000 See some brand new faces and faces that I haven't seen in a 34 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,840 long, long time. And I was just sitting there 35 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,600 doing worship, thinking about how wonderful it is that the 36 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:35,840 church is such a place where anyone can come in and anyone 37 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:39,360 can be reunited. And it's like one of the only 38 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:41,320 places in the world where those things are true. 39 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:46,760 And I just love that. So what a strange story. 40 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:54,360 I, I think actually that this particular story of Jesus is one 41 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,440 of the strangest stories that Jesus tells. 42 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,120 It starts out, you know, like most stories, Jesus almost 43 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,680 always opens his stories the same way, you know, things like, 44 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,640 you know, there was once a man or a man had two sons or, or 45 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:10,960 there was a couple and they were throwing this giant feast. 46 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:15,000 And, and this is sort of Jesus's way of letting you know that 47 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,560 he's about to tell a story. And these are the stories that 48 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,680 we, we call the parables. This is a parable of Jesus. 49 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:25,720 So if you're getting a little distraction, you know, about 50 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,440 like man, there's so many details in that story. 51 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:33,440 This is a made-up story. It's not real, but this is how 52 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:36,040 Jesus begins his story. It's how we know it's a parable. 53 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:38,480 And so the first thing to remember is that it's a story 54 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:42,320 that Jesus is telling a specific group of people, because Jesus 55 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,040 has taken on the role of a rabbi and a prophet, and he's going 56 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:48,520 around all of these different villages and cities. 57 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,640 And he's he's telling these stories to try to help people 58 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,920 understand what it means that God is sort of on the move. 59 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,920 And the Kingdom of God is spilling out into the world and 60 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:01,040 people are following him and he's trying to help them make 61 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,040 sense of that. All of the, the stuff that Jesus 62 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,840 is saying, he's saying stuff about the Kingdom of God and 63 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,880 about what the Kingdom looks like and about how the Kingdom 64 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,960 comes and about what the proper response to the Kingdom might be 65 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:21,959 and what it looks like to miss out on the Kingdom, what it 66 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:26,240 looks like to not see it, to not notice what's happening. 67 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,520 So strange story, but how, how does the story work? 68 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:36,120 I want to start there. There is a rich man who's 69 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:40,640 dressed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously 70 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:43,240 every day. When's the last time you heard 71 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,320 the word sumptuously read out loud to you? 72 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:47,400 Had to practice that one a little bit. 73 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:52,800 Hang on to that picture of a rich man, fine purple linen, 74 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,440 feasting every single day. We're going to come back to that 75 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,000 idea. And at his gate lay a poor man 76 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,280 named Lazarus who was covered in sores. 77 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:07,880 He's probably battling leprosy who longed to satisfy his hunger 78 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:09,840 with what fell from the rich man's table. 79 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:13,560 Even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 80 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,160 So there's this rich man named Lazarus and he dies and he's, 81 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,960 he's taken to be with Father Abraham, the one that we read 82 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,760 about in the Hebrew Scriptures and is being tended to with 83 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,000 comfort and with ease, with really good things on the other 84 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,320 side of life. And it just so happens that the 85 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,760 rich man also dies and he is taken into the afterlife. 86 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:38,320 And it's almost as though their fortunes are switched. 87 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,120 The one who had great comfort in this life gets agony in the 88 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,400 next. And the one who has great agony 89 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,520 and pain and suffering in this life gets comfort and ease in 90 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:52,040 the next life. Remember, this is a story. 91 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,320 Jesus is not talking about what happens in the afterlife in this 92 00:05:55,320 --> 00:06:01,400 story. So don't get confused, Jesus is 93 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:06,440 one of the best storytellers, but this is not new material. 94 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:11,120 The story would have been a very popular story in the ancient 95 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:15,240 world, maybe as close to a meme as they ever got. 96 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 So in Egyptian literature and in Jewish literature there are 97 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,200 there are both written stories and oral traditions about the 98 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:26,120 fate of men who lived in this life being swapped in the 99 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,200 afterlife. Stories just like this one where 100 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,640 a rich and a wealthy man who lives a life of comfort ends up 101 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:35,440 struggling on the other side of death and a man who struggles in 102 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,640 this life gets the good life in the next one. 103 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,840 It's kind of an ancient trope as well worn as the plot line to a 104 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:46,720 ROM com from the 90s. OK, it's very normal kind of 105 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:52,400 story and where you were in the social structure of society 106 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:56,240 would of course 'cause you to hear this story in a particular 107 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,640 way. So if you were poor or 108 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:01,480 distressed or you lived a life of suffering, the way that this 109 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:06,720 story would work on you would to have you judge the wealthy and 110 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:09,120 those who were walking around in fine clothes. 111 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,280 The story might have provided some relief, knowing that at 112 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,560 least it seemed possible that maybe on the other side of death 113 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,120 this really wealthy rich guy was going to get it. 114 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,120 And I'll get comforted in the next slide. 115 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,880 And if you heard this story and you were one of the wealthy and 116 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,240 the well fed, you might hear this story and assume that this 117 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,520 is just the kind of story that poor people and suffering people 118 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:36,200 tell themselves to make them feel better. 119 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:41,080 Stories about your fate or your neighbor's fate in the 120 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,960 afterlife. The way they worked on you is 121 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,800 they would have this effect of distracting you from the reality 122 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,160 of your real life and the real life of your neighbor, the 123 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,720 reality of the great chasm that would have separated the rich 124 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:59,680 man and the poor man. So the story itself, the way 125 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,280 that it worked, was to distract you from reality. 126 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,240 It's a way of dismissing the distance that lies between you 127 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,760 and someone else simply based on the level level of suffering 128 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:15,040 that either exists or doesn't exist between your two worlds. 129 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,680 Or what a cute little story that it is that these suffering 130 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:22,560 people tell to make themselves feel better. 131 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,560 So, friends, the very presence of this kind of story as it made 132 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:32,559 its rounds in the culture means that the people that the Kingdom 133 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:35,960 of God is supposed to bring together, the ones who need help 134 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,360 and the ones who have the capacity to help, they don't end 135 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,120 up coming together because they're so caught in this sort 136 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,200 of otherworldly, fanciful story that they can't seem to see what 137 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:47,120 is actually happening right in front of them. 138 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,000 That is how the story would have worked and operated in society. 139 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,360 Does that make sense? So Jesus is, is telling a very 140 00:08:55,360 --> 00:09:01,160 well worn and well known story, this story of, of, of, of 141 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,600 fortunes switching. And the way that the story 142 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,000 worked would have, would have worked like distraction. 143 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,120 OK, so what's the story about? Let's keep going. 144 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:17,560 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine 145 00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:25,120 linen, who feasted sumptuously. Sumptuously, sumptuously, every 146 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,360 day. Go ahead and try it three times. 147 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:29,480 Sumptuously sumptuous. OK. 148 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,880 The story is about a man who, after he dies, realizes that 149 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,560 he's made a mistake. He was so caught up in the fine 150 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:39,760 clothes and the good food and the pursuit of fine dining that 151 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,640 he apparently walked right by the poor and the hungry man with 152 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:47,200 sores on his body every single day without taking much notice. 153 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:52,160 And then in the afterlife, he sees the man across this great 154 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,560 chasm. But even then, the way that he 155 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:57,640 interacts with him in the afterlife is to assume that the 156 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,800 poor man could do his bidding. Hey, send that guy back to my 157 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:06,760 family so that he can be my servant to tell my brothers 158 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:08,840 about what was happening here in this life. 159 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:13,360 And the interesting thing about this story that Jesus is telling 160 00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:17,680 is that he gives one of the characters a name. 161 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:23,560 And it's the only parable of the more than 40 parables that Jesus 162 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:28,280 gave where someone has a name. So probably something that we 163 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:32,800 should pay attention to. Let's assume that maybe 164 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,920 something significant is going on for the simple fact that 165 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,560 Jesus has named one of the characters in the story. 166 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,880 The poor man with sores is called Lazarus, which is a 167 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,400 popular name in the time. But more than that, it's the 168 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:49,560 simple fact that in the ancient Near Eastern culture, names 169 00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:52,240 carry with it significance and meaning. 170 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,120 But the significance in the story of the poor man being 171 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,840 named Lazarus is the fact that the name Lazarus comes from the 172 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:03,560 Hebrew name Eliazar, which literally means the one who God 173 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:07,640 helps. Which is Jesus's way of 174 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:10,920 highlighting and underscoring the fact that the very one who 175 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,520 God was there to help is the one that the rich and the well fed 176 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:18,520 man did not help. Oh man, it's getting good right? 177 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,280 What a great story that the street corner with the beggar is 178 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,160 where God's presence was the whole time. 179 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:27,960 And the man living behind the gate was so busy planning the 180 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:31,480 menu of his next dinner party that he could see that he could 181 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:36,360 not see where God was at work. So what's the story about? 182 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:39,520 It's a story about someone missing out on the work and the 183 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:43,400 presence of God in the world because he numbed his way 184 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,240 through life with sumptuous feasting. 185 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,000 Feasting so much that it distracted him from being able 186 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,400 to see that God had placed a man right at his feet. 187 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:55,160 That God was committed to helping. 188 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:58,880 But this man missed it. And the wealthy guy could have 189 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:05,680 been a part of it. So Jesus uses a well known story 190 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:10,560 that functioned in society as a distraction from reality, which 191 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:13,600 causes people to miss out on the kinds of connections that the 192 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,400 Kingdom is meant to bring. And then he tweaks the story 193 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,920 just enough to make it a story about a man who couldn't see the 194 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:23,360 Kingdom of God unfolding in front of him because he was way 195 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:25,800 too into high living and fancy food. 196 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,400 His wealth and riches and abundance got in the way of 197 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:34,000 seeing and participating in something that God was doing. 198 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:40,000 A story that functioned like distraction and a story that is 199 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:43,480 about distraction. It's about numbing. 200 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,440 OK, so why does Jesus tell this story? 201 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:52,800 Let's just keep digging. The reason that Jesus tells a 202 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:59,920 story is revealed in the text by Luke, because Luke tells us who 203 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:05,840 Jesus is telling the story to. Just a few verses before that, 204 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,880 just a few verses before Jesus tells this story, Luke gives us 205 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:10,480 a clue. He says this. 206 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:16,440 He says the Pharisees, who were lovers of money were listening 207 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:19,400 to all of these things and were scoffing at him. 208 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,360 Ah, says Jesus, I should tell a story about a rich man who's 209 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,520 well fed. The Pharisees were religious 210 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:31,160 leaders of the day, and they were steeped in this tradition 211 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:32,800 and the study of the Hebrew scriptures. 212 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,760 And they lived really cushioned lives with well paid positions. 213 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,800 And they kept their distance from the poor, particularly 214 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:43,920 those who had diseases like leprosy, for fear that those 215 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,800 people were unclean and therefore would make them 216 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:48,680 unclean. So they created this distance 217 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:52,360 between them. And so Jesus tells a story about 218 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,920 a rich man dressed in fine clothes, dining at fancy tables, 219 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,440 only to realize in the next life that they had missed the things 220 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,680 that God was doing. And then he says this again. 221 00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:05,560 We're in the story. He says, I beg you father, this 222 00:14:05,560 --> 00:14:11,280 is the rich man begging Abraham to send him the poor man to my 223 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,840 father's house, for I have 5 brothers, that he may warn them 224 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,480 so that they will not also come into this place of torment. 225 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:22,200 Abraham replied, Well they have Moses and the prophets. 226 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:25,560 Well who did? Who did the Pharisees have? 227 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,960 They had Moses and the prophets. They were steeped in the ancient 228 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:34,280 Hebrew scriptures, they should listen to them. 229 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,560 He said to him, if they do not listen to Moses and the 230 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:43,160 prophets, neither will they be convinced even if somebody were 231 00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:49,080 to rise from the dead. Even the people who have Moses 232 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,120 and the prophets, namely the Pharisees, are likely to miss 233 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,600 what God is doing right under their noses if they live their 234 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:01,520 life like the rich man. So Jesus uses a well known story 235 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,960 that kept people ungrounded in reality of their life together 236 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:09,120 in the real world. And he told the story in a way 237 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,800 that highlighted how the abundance of our lives can dull 238 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,520 us to the presence of God. And he told it to a group of 239 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:20,720 people he was trying to help warn so they would not miss the 240 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:26,080 Kingdom of God. Ungrounded in reality, dulled to 241 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,400 the presence of God, missing out on the Kingdom. 242 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:36,720 That's what the story's about. So we've been in this teaching 243 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:41,840 series over the past couple of weeks on the passions. 244 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,480 And if you were with us a number of weeks ago, one of the ways 245 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,600 that we described the passions is to say that the passions, 246 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:54,360 these forces, these desires and attitudes and sometimes 247 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:58,080 obsessive emotions and thoughts that are our work inside of us. 248 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:03,360 That much of the time, these desires and thoughts, they work 249 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:08,040 their way out in our everyday actions and habits in our lives. 250 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,040 And the kind of overall thesis is, is if you were to take a 251 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,760 look at your life, if you were to take a look at my life too, 252 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:19,320 by the way, and you were to see all of the weird little habits 253 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,560 or the obsessive thought patterns that we kind of get 254 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,120 looped up in, and you were to sort of trace that thread all 255 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,680 the way back. It is a thread that is tied 256 00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:35,640 somewhere in a deep, deep knot inside of our soul, and God 257 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:40,040 wants to heal it and untie the knot to help us live lives that 258 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:42,160 are worthy of the thing that we have been called to. 259 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,200 That is sort of the thesis of this whole thing. 260 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:49,400 And the men and women on their journey of formation in the 261 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,640 first few centuries after the death of Jesus, they developed 262 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,640 some sort of kind of preliminary psychological tradition that 263 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,160 began to recognize that there were all sorts of things that 264 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:03,080 were getting in the way of their efforts to learn the ways of God 265 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:06,440 and to follow the way of Jesus. And to pray and to love with 266 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,560 self sacrifice and to stay present to the reality of their 267 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:14,200 lives and the things that we're getting in the way. 268 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:16,880 They sort of kind of formed patterns. 269 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,119 And as they got together and they compared notes, they had 270 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,000 this sort of moment like, oh, like, like you too. 271 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,920 Like, like you have that thing going on all of the time in the 272 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:31,720 back of your mind or that habit is something that you also 273 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:35,800 struggle with. They begin to compare notes and 274 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:38,440 they begin to realize that many of the struggles that I might be 275 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,960 having in my thoughts or emotions and the way that those 276 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,640 come out sideways are probably similar to the ways that those 277 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,040 are working out in your life. And here's the thing. 278 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:52,640 Most of us tend to gravitate to one or two really strong desires 279 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:55,760 or thought patterns that can begin to form and shape some 280 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:57,320 really deep patterns in our life. 281 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,400 And those patterns, they form habits and they begin to form 282 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,960 coping mechanisms in our life. And those patterns even begin to 283 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:09,640 form our personality. And what we know from scientists 284 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:14,280 and neuroscientists and social scientists is that much of who 285 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:18,520 you are today, much of who I am today, can be traced back to 286 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,640 patterns of thought and emotional containers that tried 287 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:28,560 to hold US 20 years ago, 10 years ago, some of you 40 years 288 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:33,600 ago. The parable that Jesus tells in 289 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:37,080 our teaching text this morning is also about these kinds of 290 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:39,880 things. There are complex arrays of 291 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:44,040 thoughts and emotions and stories that we live in that 292 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,840 keep us ungrounded in reality, dulled to the presence of God, 293 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:49,760 and missing out on the Kingdom of God. 294 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:57,320 And at the very center of this story that Jesus tells us is a 295 00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:01,840 rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who 296 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,240 feasted sumptuously every single day. 297 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:11,440 So in the ancient world, if you had to categorize the passion 298 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,560 that this guy was struggling with, you would say that he was 299 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,520 dealing with a little bit of gluttony. 300 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:24,320 That's the passion for today. Gluttony is the craving for what 301 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:27,120 is more than necessary or more than you need. 302 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,760 And it can show up in all kinds of ways with food and drink, but 303 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,920 also in our particular modern context, in all kinds of 304 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:38,080 categories that we usually would not associate with gluttony. 305 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:43,480 Gluttony is the overconsumption of really anything from YouTube 306 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:49,440 Shorts to ice cream to Merlot. Like whatever your potion is, if 307 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,800 there is a desire to overconsume it, you have a little touch, 308 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:59,080 little simple full or or a giant container full dumping over your 309 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:04,800 body of gluttony. Whatever it is that is at your 310 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,440 fingertips that can pull us out of reality, can dull us to the 311 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,600 presence of God. And it might actually be the 312 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,560 thing that is preventing you from seeing the Kingdom of God 313 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,840 unfold in your life. That's what Jesus is talking 314 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,120 about. Like the the rich, well dressed, 315 00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:28,560 well fed man in Jesus story. So friends, I, I, I want to get 316 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,680 just a little meta with you. Just a second. 317 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:35,880 I not meta as in Facebook, but it's so complex. 318 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,280 OK, I chose this particular teaching text this morning 319 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,920 because I, I don't want to focus too much energy and attention on 320 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,120 the overconsumption of food and drink. 321 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:52,840 I want you to really hear that I, I think there is some danger 322 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,600 down that path. I think it's really quite 323 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,520 complex, and in just a minute we are going to talk a little bit 324 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:06,760 about food and drink. But the reason that I chose this 325 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,280 particular text is because I think at the real heart of the 326 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,800 matter of gluttony is really the way that gluttony ungrounds us 327 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,760 in reality, numbs us to the presence of God, and causes us 328 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:19,720 to miss out on the Kingdom of God. 329 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,280 There is a a well known story in the prophet Ezekiel about the 330 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,680 destruction of two cities called Sodom and Gomorrah. 331 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,560 Anybody ever heard that story referenced? 332 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:35,000 OK, most of us have heard about that story in a way that is 333 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,960 actually a little bit off. If you actually read the 16th 334 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,600 chapter of the book of Ezekiel, we see that as Ezekiel 335 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,720 enumerates the sins of the people of Sodom, he connects 336 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:51,120 their destruction with excess food and prosperous ease. 337 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:55,360 So for Ezekiel, the people of Sodom are guilty of all kinds of 338 00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:58,440 social injustice. But what got them there, what 339 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,600 got them down the path of ignoring the needs of the poor, 340 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,760 was way too much bread and a little too much wine and a 341 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,800 little too much ease. So the reason that the early 342 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,520 church fathers and mothers, they saw gluttony as one of the first 343 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:17,560 things that we ought to tend to is not because they had a hang 344 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:23,120 up with food, but because they lived in a world that was so 345 00:22:23,120 --> 00:22:26,480 much suffering. That anyone who's spent too much 346 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,600 time thinking about the finer things of life or consuming too 347 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:34,200 much food or drink also tended to be the kind of people who 348 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:41,120 neglected the poor laying outside of their gates, which is 349 00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:43,080 at the very center of the heart of God. 350 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:49,320 So writing in the 4th century early church, Father John 351 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:56,880 Chrysostom, who wrote 6 sermons on this passage in Luke, it's 352 00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:58,680 very interesting. It's in a little booklet called 353 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,000 On Wealth and Poverty. And that guy does not pull 354 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:03,640 punches. Let me tell you this. 4th 355 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,800 century dudes are. But he writes this. 356 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:11,560 He says the excess that you have belongs to the poor. 357 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,440 The coat in your closet that you never use? 358 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,960 It belongs to the naked. The shoes rotting in your 359 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:21,960 possession belong to the shoeless. 360 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,160 The money you hoard belongs to the destitute. 361 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:32,400 Overindulgence deadens our senses to the needs of those 362 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:38,320 around us. Friends, do you guys see anybody 363 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:42,240 in need in the world right now? Your neighbors? 364 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:49,440 People in our city, I'm not in any way trying to make like a 365 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:55,040 really quick fix, but what I am trying to do is I'm trying to 366 00:23:55,040 --> 00:24:01,000 help us get underneath about why is it even culturally that we 367 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,240 live in a system where there are lots of people who have very, 368 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,280 very little and so many people who have very, very much? 369 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:19,440 It's gluttony. Overindulgence deadens our 370 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,640 senses to the needs of those around us. 371 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:27,080 And so I want to keep circling in on what gluttony does to us. 372 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:32,360 It ungrounds us in reality. It numbs us to the presence of 373 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:35,600 God. It causes us to miss out on the 374 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,760 Kingdom of God, period, if we're not careful. 375 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:47,000 So let me let me first talk about reality again. 376 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,360 One of the early Church fathers who helped the formation 377 00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:52,680 tradition learn about the passions was a man named John 378 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,280 Cashin. Cashin described our being 379 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,680 enslaved by the passions as kind of an unreality. 380 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:03,120 He writes this in his book called The Institutes. 381 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:08,800 He says the mind darkened by gluttony cannot retain spiritual 382 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:13,800 understanding. You know, I know I've shared 383 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:18,800 this in a couple of different contexts, but there was a season 384 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:23,680 in my my mid 30s where I became aware that I was using a little 385 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:30,840 bit of bourbon almost every single night to dull my senses 386 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,960 and the overwhelming sense of responsibility that I felt in 387 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,760 raising 4 kids in A1 income household. 388 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,160 And I'm not saying that anyone who has a little bourbon each 389 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,680 night or drinks regularly that that's what you're doing. 390 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:49,200 I'm telling you that that's what I was doing. 391 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,920 I'm simply saying that this was what was happening for me. 392 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,280 It was a way of me disconnecting and of not staying in it. 393 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,920 I was coasting through the evenings not as an addict, but 394 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,440 as someone who just needed to check out of the hustle and the 395 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,520 bustle at the end of the day in a small little act of 396 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:11,640 self-reliance and self reward. And you know what? 397 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:16,040 Praise God that it was a short season in my life that I am 398 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,880 grateful that God put His finger on and gave me the grace to 399 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,840 respond to that. The whole world is filled with 400 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:28,120 the grandeur of God as Gerald Manley Hopkins says, and I was 401 00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:31,760 self medicating my way through the grandeur in a way that 402 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:33,880 dulled my senses to the glory of God. 403 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,200 And the post dinner cleanup and the pajama party and the story 404 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,240 time and the brushing of tiny teeth. 405 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:47,200 And I am so grateful that God came alongside of me and gently 406 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:51,800 just say said to me, what are you doing? 407 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:58,480 Would you like to become free of this little tiny self 408 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,360 medication? And would you like to become 409 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:10,800 more alive to the grandeur of the Lego mess and the toothpaste 410 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,120 spread all over the place? Anybody ever have that problem 411 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:16,080 with kids? I don't know where they get 412 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,840 these ideas. Friends, the reality of our 413 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:24,840 lives is the place where God is dwelling and any substance, food 414 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,920 or drink or cannabis or the flashing lights of YouTube 415 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:32,280 shorts or whatever else is at our fingertips is forever going 416 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:36,080 to be calling us towards stepping outside the real and 417 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:39,320 into the imaginary in a way that dolls our senses to the presence 418 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:43,600 of God. It numbs us to the presence of 419 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:48,200 God who is wanting to show up everywhere with bright lights in 420 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,440 the faces of men and women and little children in our presence. 421 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:58,480 It is no accident that the very first temptation and the center 422 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,280 of the downfall of our first sister Eve and our brother Adam 423 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,440 was the temptation to ignore the command of God in exchange for 424 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:10,160 their one food in creation that the Creator had told them not to 425 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,800 eat. It's such an easy slippery 426 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:17,920 slope. So let me, let me just try to 427 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:23,920 hit this straight on. Let me just talk a moment about 428 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,600 the passion of gluttony that shows up directly in our lives 429 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,560 as overconsumption or overindulgence, specifically 430 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:36,800 around food and drink. You know, in the ancient world, 431 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,800 food and drink were about the only ways you could distract 432 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,480 yourself. You know, the sun went down and 433 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,480 there you were in the darkness with all of your problems. 434 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,680 And if you were lucky, a store of food or wine would help you 435 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,720 get to bedtime. And so the reason that gluttony 436 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,840 shows up at the top of the list of the passions and most of the 437 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:01,360 literature is because it was the one thing that they thought 438 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,360 should be the first passion that that that we should tackle. 439 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,040 It's really hard to get present to your thoughts. 440 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,240 It's hard to take on the work of renewing your mind and attending 441 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,120 to your desires. They said if your belly is 442 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,040 stuffed full or you're slightly inebriated. 443 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,600 So if we think about our own lives, it's not that food and 444 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:28,000 drink have waned in their power over our lives, have they? 445 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:32,480 It's just that we have so many more options to distract us. 446 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:37,760 You know, we stand in front of the refrigerator and we just 447 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:42,640 keep looking. And my new refrigerator has an 448 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,600 alarm on it that says that the door is open. 449 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:52,120 And man, I got to tell you, that's, that's violence for 450 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:56,400 somebody who's in that sort of acedia, which Carl talked about 451 00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,000 last week and standing in front of the refrigerator and it's 452 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,880 like Bing, bong Bing. It's like, OK, OK, let's shut 453 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,760 the door. I mean, even yesterday while 454 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,240 preparing this teaching, I visited the kitchen no less than 455 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,000 1/2 a dozen times to get a snack. 456 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,040 I mean, who wants to prep a sermon on gluttony in the year 457 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,760 of our Lord in 2025 when there are crinkle cut kettle chips in 458 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:22,040 the pantry? So here's the honest reality 459 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,600 about our modern day relationship with food. 460 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,360 Since the 1960s, there has been a very conscious and very 461 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,960 scientific development of chemically engineered, hyper 462 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,680 palatable and addictive foods developed in laboratories. 463 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,400 We that is like the closest thing to an Amen I've I've heard 464 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:42,520 today. So I'll just take it. 465 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,920 Yeah, so food science gave us synthetic additives and 466 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,760 preservatives and emulsifiers for mass production. 467 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,920 And within the lifespan of most of us in this room, the 468 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,680 emergence of the snack food industry has come to 4 The 469 00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,040 aforementioned potato chips, one of my personal favorite, the 470 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,520 sugary breakfast cereals, the package cookies. 471 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:07,920 They became a staple of most American homes and sugar and fat 472 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,600 and salt became central to what industry scientists like Howard 473 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:18,600 Moskowitz termed in the late 1980s as the bliss point to 474 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,800 describe the perfect flavor combination that keeps people 475 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:25,280 eating. Food companies began using 476 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,560 consumer psychology and neuroscience to optimize 477 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:33,440 cravings and engineered foods for from optimal addiction. 478 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:36,600 You guys know that that's been happening, right? 479 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,640 OK, so in the early 2000's the term ultra processed foods was 480 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:46,240 introduced, coined by Brazilian nutritionist Carlos Montario and 481 00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:48,640 it became the industry standard practice. 482 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:52,560 And along with it, the rise of low cost, calorie dense foods 483 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:57,600 designed for speed, shelf life, profit margins have within one 484 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,440 generation completely redesigned the way that food works in our 485 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,080 modern society. And the result has been the rise 486 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,840 of obesity and metabolic disease. 487 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:12,480 This is the facts. And just in the past decade, 488 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,160 neuroscientists have begun to do studies and concluded that food 489 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:20,920 addiction in our modern age parallels drug abuse with 490 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:26,040 similar brain reward circuit changes and cravings and 491 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:32,560 withdrawal symptoms. Listen friends, being a human is 492 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,960 really hard. There's no doubt about that. 493 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,120 If, if, if you have come to a different conclusion than that, 494 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,000 I would love to have a conversation with you. 495 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:46,040 But in the midst of the hardship of being a human, there are 496 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,800 cultural forces and scientists that are doing everything they 497 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,760 can to give us easy access to the things that can numb our 498 00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:57,640 senses and distract us from the things right outside of our home 499 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:03,360 or even within our home that God is wanting us to become present 500 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:08,040 to. There's this moment on the cross 501 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,200 where Jesus is in his final hours. 502 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,600 He's suffering the full weight of the sin of the world, and the 503 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:18,320 soldiers OfferUp to him a sponge filled with strong wine. 504 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:23,320 Let's take away a little bit of that pain. 505 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:28,920 Now what does he do? He refuses it. 506 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,600 Why? Because the moment was 507 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:37,560 important. God was doing something. 508 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:40,680 He wanted to be fully present to it. 509 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,240 And friends, some of what God is wanting to make us present to is 510 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,400 the pain and the suffering of others so that we can join God 511 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,840 in the work of doing justice and loving the mercy of God. 512 00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,440 So much so that we would extend the mercy of God to the one in 513 00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:01,320 front of us and to show up fully in person as an ambassador of 514 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,840 the love of God to the person right outside of our gate. 515 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:08,199 But often times a first step in being able to see the pain and 516 00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:11,600 the suffering of another is to enter into the pain and the 517 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:19,600 suffering in our own self. Our capacity to work alongside 518 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:25,719 of God for justice and mercy is contingent on the capacity for 519 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,480 us to allow God to do those things in US first. 520 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,000 I mean, listen, friends, everyone knows that it is much 521 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,920 easier to crush a pint of ice cream than it is to feel 522 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:42,239 loneliness and to let that loneliness remind you of the 523 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:46,239 people that you need. But it will be so much better. 524 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,960 And I bet I would eat a lot less ice cream if in the loneliness. 525 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:54,000 I called a couple of friends and I told them what I was facing. 526 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:59,680 So, friends, if food and drink is becoming for us a slow 527 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,520 addiction and a means of self medication, what we know to be 528 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:09,320 true is that addiction is a symptom of disconnection. 529 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,960 In the story that Jesus tells in Luke's gospel, there's this 530 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:19,080 great chasm that separated the rich man from the poor man. 531 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,840 And the chasm was made visible in the story in the next life, 532 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:27,000 but it only revealed how great the chasm actually was in the 533 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:32,440 real life. And so here's what I would love 534 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:38,200 to do, if it's possible. Would you just be willing to set 535 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:44,760 aside for a moment all of the complexities around diet culture 536 00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:50,600 and body image? I know that that's a heavy lift. 537 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,600 Just try set those questions aside. 538 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,840 And could you bring this question before God in prayer? 539 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:11,400 God, is there any way that I am using food or alcohol or sugar 540 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,960 or cannabis or YouTube or Facebook? 541 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,840 Is there anything that I am over consuming or using to numb 542 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:26,480 myself to the realities of my life or the lives of those 543 00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:30,480 around me? Just take a minute. 544 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,440 I I just invite you, even just right now, just God, is there 545 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,960 anything that you would want to bring my attention to? 546 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,320 Just to see if God would bring something to your mind. 547 00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:02,720 I just pray in the name of Jesus against any shame because that 548 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:15,140 is not how God operates. And if it is food or sugar or 549 00:37:15,140 --> 00:37:22,760 alcohol for some other substance, what might it be for 550 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,280 you to let someone in on that stroke? 551 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:33,240 To get some help? To reach out to someone and let 552 00:37:33,240 --> 00:37:36,080 them know that your relationship with food is complex or there's 553 00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:38,360 a substance that's robbing you of presence? 554 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,720 The Lord is gracious and compassionate. 555 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,600 I'm going to say one more thing and then we'll read together our 556 00:37:55,120 --> 00:38:02,360 our liturgy to close. Why are we doing a series on the 557 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:06,600 passions? Why are we talking about this 558 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:12,200 stuff? It's because we desire to be a 559 00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:19,840 community that joins God in the work of mercy and justice and 560 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:23,480 demonstrating with our real lives the infinite love of God 561 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:30,120 for all people. And I am just aware there are so 562 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:36,360 many things in my life that are getting in the way of that task. 563 00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:43,040 And we can say yes to the healing power of God. 564 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:49,240 And so however you would want to respond this morning, one of the 565 00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:54,120 things I have loved about this church for 20 years is that of 566 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:56,800 all of the churches I've ever been a part of, this church is a 567 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:02,840 place where we get to show up and deal with reality, what's 568 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,560 actually true about our lives without any judgement, without 569 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,880 any shame. That together we can lay hands 570 00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:11,960 on one another, we can pray for one another. 571 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,080 We can say come Holy Spirit, and that we can expect that the 572 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,320 healing power of God is going to be in our midst. 573 00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:26,120 So I want to invite you to read this with me as we head into our 574 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:35,000 ministry time together. We say I am infinitely loved by 575 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:39,960 God, and God's infinite love is in the process of healing 576 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,440 everything in me that clings to false things. 577 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:48,640 The invitation of God is to allow God to be the divine 578 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,920 physician. The medicine of God is God's own 579 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:57,120 loved, poured out into my heart through the Holy Spirit. 580 00:39:57,880 --> 00:39:59,720 We have the worship team come back up. 581 00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:04,280 The kids will be coming in shortly. 582 00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:07,040 We're going to head into a time of worship and prayer.